Port Richey, Tarpon Springs, Dunedin and Clearwater

After our nice shower at the YMCA in Spring Hills, FL, we made our way to our accommodations for the night, their WalMart parking lot. I think we may have been the only overnighters there.

^Me enjoying the free wifi at the YMCA.

Who wouldn't want to sleep in a WalMart parking lot with a view like this??!!??

(JK, but everyone should try this at least once. The key is having a nice comfortable bed on which to sleep. And BTW, this pic isn't from Spring Hill, it was made the night before, but wanted to post it anyway.)

Here are pics of what the van looks like when we are traveling.

From the back:

From the front seat looking back:

The grey fabric rolled up is our curtain we hang behind the seat for privacy.

Today consisted of eating breakfast in Port Richey, then heading to Tarpon Springs.

We especially liked our welcome committee who was parked on the side of the street.

As you can see, there is a person looking thing in there, so we had to get a closer look.

We thought this was pretty funny. Anthony read the name tag, S. Price. We thought that could mean SURPRISE!!! Which it was. At first we thought he was real, lol.

Tarpon Springs is famous for its sponges and became an important center for sponge diving when Greek divers came to the area in the early 1900s.

 There is a large percentage of Greeks that still live here today as was evident from all the Greek restaurants and bakeries in the area. 

This next house is of the Safford House, which unfortunately wasn't open on the weekends (what the heck??!!??). It is the house of one of the founding families.

We also saw St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, which was amazingly ornate.

One more thing that caught Anthony's attention was this old Volkswagen van that was parked in front of a bike shop.

This was the sticker on the windshield.

I guess you have to have a permit for everything these days, ha!

AND the place you stick your head through for a funny picture:

The next town we visited was Dunedin.

They had a street market and all sorts of people milling around.

It was a cute community.

Next we headed to Clearwater, FL. We made a friend who worked at Whole Foods in Chattanooga, and she transferred to the WF in Clearwater, so we decided to stop by to see if she was working, and she sure was. It was fun going through her line and surprising her, and got to visit her for a bit on her break.

Tomorrow we are taking Liann to breakfast and then riding bikes and making sure we see a beach sunset, which I am looking forward to very much. 

Vitamin D

We have finally found the sun. It has been hiding along the west coast of Florida, which we have been enjoying the last few days. After we left on Wednesday, we visited REI and Performance Bike in Atlanta. 

We left late from Chattanooga and hit Atlanta traffic during rush hour. After going about 15 mph for several miles through downtown Atlanta, and watching the car in front of us veer toward the lane next to her several times, and even bumping a tow truck once, which was entertaining for awhile, Anthony decided we could try out the HOV lane. That was a first for Anthony, so I guess that was as close to him "living in the fast lane" as he is going to get. 

We spent the night in Cordele, GA, and that night was a wee bit cold, and there was a nice little train that was very close by as we could tell by the blowing of the horn at least four different times that night.  We fixed our breakfast at a rest stop, and kept on heading south for a while.

We just thought this courthouse was kind of neat in Quitman, GA:

And saw this old boarded house. Would have loved to have gone in there. We wondered what the history of this house is:

 Finally we made it to Florida and headed southwest toward the coast. 

The first siting of the beach was seen in Dekle Beach, which consists of a few houses on stilts and a few RV's, and nothing else. There was no sign of anyone living there and just a few other cars driving around. Clearly not a tourist destination. 

However, we traveled a bit further and found a nice friendly beach in Keaton Beach where we decided to eat lunch and walk on the pier. It was a small community but I think would be a nice place to visit for a quiet vacation to the beach. But while we were there, there were just a handful of people and a few birds just enjoying the sun and sand. 

We then continued south and came across Suwannee:

This colorful boat was about the most interesting part of the town.

Then we went into the North Suwannee National Wildlife refuge where Anthony got to climb this tree:

And he was officially initiated to Florida by being inoculated by the infamous No See Ums. WELCOME TO THE COAST!! We also had them in abundance when we lived in Biloxi after we were first married and we do not miss them. 

We got to stay in a really nice WalMart parking lot in Inverness, FL where it was very quiet, and slept for ten hours. It was great! Anthony had spoken about riding on the Withlacoochee trail before when he had previously pedaled to Clermont, FL, and we were going to get to do that this morning. It is a nice 46 mile rails to trails black topped trail that runs through Inverness, and we got on it and headed toward Citrus Springs. I made it 13 miles and rested while Anthony went another three miles to the end. So, yea, a total of 26 miles for me today.

I like this picture ^

A little entertainment along the trail.

Today we found our way to Spring Hill, FL YMCA where were able to get a 3 day pass, which means I get a hot shower for the next three days, which I am very happy about!!

I think we are going to hang out in Clearwater for the next few days and enjoy the area while we are here.

WHY ARE WE HERE!!

Why are we here, we asked ourselves. Not in a rhetorical sense, but the extremely literal aspect. Like WHY ARE WE WHERE IT IS SO FREAKING COLD here?? So we decided to go in search of a bit of warmth, another place we have never travelled, The Keys. Well, that will be our ultimate destination anyway, but are hoping to get to enjoy what is between here and there also. 

But first had to make sure we have everything we need before we can head out:

A man:

A van:

A couple of pans:

And some plans:

Yup. I think we are ready.